Replay: Irish Cap Weekend with ACC Crown

April 29, 2018

By John Heisler

What a difference a week makes.

Last Sunday the Irish men’s lacrosse team flew home from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, wondering what its future held after falling by a goal to North Carolina and standing 6-5 after defeats in three of its most recent four games.

Seven days later Notre Dame is the Atlantic Coast Conference champion following its two highest-scoring games of the season.

After eliminating Duke, the top-ranked team in the country, Friday in the semifinals, the Irish romped Sunday in the title contest-outscoring high-powered Virginia at its own game 17-7 with a 10-3 run in the middle two periods.

Notre Dame appeared to take a page right out of the Cavaliers’ book, pouring in the most Irish goals since a midseason win at Syracuse in 2016 (by the identical score). This time it happened in front of a naturally partisan Cavalier crowd on a sunny 57-degree afternoon in Charlottesville, Virginia.

The Irish NCAA prognostication now? It looks much more glossy today after a huge weekend that handed Notre Dame its second conference tournament crown in the five years coach Kevin Corrigan’s squad has been an ACC member.

Championship hats and shirts for all.

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Neither team made a save in the opening period as the only five shots on goal all found their mark. The Irish followed an early Wahoo score with three consecutive goals-two by sophomore Bryan Costabile and one by classmate Brian Willetts.

But from a still-tight 5-3 lead at 8:28 of the second period Notre Dame went on a rampage.

Six consecutive goals pushed the Irish advantage to a virtually insurmountable 11-3 margin-as the Notre Dame defense held the Cavaliers without a score for more than 15 minutes. It marked the third time in 2018 Virginia managed only three first-half goals.

Those six in a row for Notre Dame included three straight heading into intermission (in a 1:49 span in the final three minutes) and then the first three of the third period (within the opening 5:21).

“I’d love to tell you there was some great strategy involved in there, but it was mainly a bunch of our guys just making plays,” the Irish head coach offered.

Senior attack Mikey Wynne had two of that half-dozen–and the Irish were off to the races.

“Now that was fun,” offered Irish junior midfielder Timmy Phillips as the Irish entered a juiced and energized locker room at the break.

Virginia did its best to cut into the deficit, with three third-period goals, including two in a 23-second span that made it 12-6 for the Irish. But by midway through that quarter Notre Dame already had its second-highest scoring total of 2018-after posting its previous high Friday night with 14 goals against Duke.

Then senior midfielder Pierre Byrne came up with a momentum-changing tally with 30 seconds left in the period, and the Irish scored the final four goals of the game with the Cavaliers scrambling defensively.

Notre Dame admittedly had little recent practice playing with a lead of that dimension, but on this occasion the Irish enjoyed the opportunity to give it a whirl.

“Once we got a little separation that made them press a little bit and that helped us,” noted Corrigan.

With 30 seconds to go everybody on the winning bench was doing wild jumping jacks in celebration.

The game may have lacked real drama after the middle of the second period-but give Corrigan’s troops credit for that.

Virginia’s seven goals matched its season low-the same seven Notre Dame allowed in mid-March in its 9-7 regular-season victory over the Wahoos in South Bend.

“We wanted to slow their transition down, make them earn their goals six on six and make it a little more of a grind for them,” said Corrigan.

Junior attack Ryder Garnsey, Costabile and Willetts had three goals apiece, while Byrne and senior midfielder Brendan Collins notched a pair each.

Notre Dame’s 26 overall shots on goal forced Virginia to go to a second net-minder in the final period. And to think only three weeks ago a debilitated Irish team managed only five of those shots on goal in a home loss to Duke.

The Irish benefitted from 25 Virginia turnovers, though some number of those came due to the Wahoos’ near-desperation circumstances as the clock wound down.

Costabile, Garnsey, senior middie John Sexton and freshman goaltender Matt Schmidt (eight saves Sunday) made the all-tournament team-with Costabile taking home the outstanding player trophy.

The Irish now possess seven straight series wins over Virginia-with the last Cavalier victory coming in a 2006 first-round NCAA matchup in Charlottesville. And Notre Dame has allowed 10 or fewer goals in all seven of those outings.

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Any time the Irish play in Charlottesville it represents a homecoming for Corrigan, who graduated from and played lacrosse for Virginia.

There were plenty of Corrigans in the stands, including his parents who still live in the Charlottesville area-and that made for a fun postgame reunion.

The Irish now boast two ACC Championship trophies in five years-the first of those in 2014 (Notre Dame’s first season in the conference) coming exactly 50 years after Kevin’s father Gene won the second of his two as Virginia head coach.

With a final-regular season home game remaining Saturday versus Army, Corrigan and the Irish have to like their current standing.

“Let’s remember how we played and focused this weekend,” the Notre Dame head coach told his squad immediately after the final horn.

And if a lacrosse team wants to be playing its best when the calendar flips to May, this Irish weekend set them up nicely.

“Our energy was high all weekend,” said Corrigan. “After last week our guys knew they had to come back with their best lacrosse. And I was impressed how loose we played in both games.”

Notre Dame’s reputation in recent years has been one that emphasizes consistent, solid defensive play as its anchor.

After the Irish goal explosion this weekend, future opponents may need to take a second look.

Corrigan told his players before the game began that he knew how many people had been patting them on the back in the past 36 hours after their Friday night win over the top-rated Blue Devils.

“And deservedly so,” he added. “But right now that win might as well have been 1989.”

He emphasized the rear-view mirror nature of that accomplishment and how Sunday represented a new challenge-a chance for the entire weekend to be a launching pad for the Irish.

Challenge accepted.

Corrigan noted his 2018 team had been on something of a roller-coaster ride.

After an ACC crown, that coaster now appears headed out in the right direction.

Senior associate athletics director John Heisler has been following Irish athletic fortunes since 1978.